Life in the Classwomb
by Dielle Ciesco © 2008 All Rights Reserved

           The first opportunity to get your child ready for learning is in the womb.  We are beginning to understand that the womb is actually a classroom where the baby has its first lessons in emotional intelligence, language, mathematics, pattern recognition, abstract reasoning, and pitch discrimination.  The baby’s experiences here can make all the difference later in life as the child enters the real-world classroom. 

Almost everyone is aware of the dangers that smoking and drinking and drug use can have upon a developing fetus.  The fetus is so very sensitive to its environment that even your stress and poor nutrition can have quite an impact on baby’s emotional intelligence and early language skills. In fact, early language problems have been associated with stressful pregnancy.  But it isn’t just the dangers we should focus upon.  We should also turn our attentions to what we can do to provide an enrichment program for baby in utero.    

            At just nine weeks, the fetus can react to loud noises.  And by the end of your second trimester, the sense of hearing has developed.  Babies earliest sounds help shape baby’s brain and contribute to a child’s later ability to discriminate both between and among sounds for reading and language.  

Activities like reading aloud, playing music, playing games, and simply talking with your unborn baby can have a tremendous impact later on.  We know infants whose parents talk to them and use lots of vocabulary develop better language skills.  But you don’t need to wait until after birth.  Talk to your baby now!  With the continual rise in learning disabilities, children need all the early intervention they can get.    

             Music is an important enrichment for your unborn child.  Since math and music circuitry are related, introducing music early may help math later.  Music can prime the brain’s neural pathways and may be critical for later cognitive abilities and ability to sustain attention.  Neural firing patterns are basically the same for music appreciation and abstract reasoning, so it stands to reason cultivating an early love of music will prepare a child for abstract thought.